Rockne's coaching career and life came to a sudden and sad end on march 31, 1931 when a commercial plane in which he as a passenger crashed in a Kansas wheat field. The name Knute Rockne symbolized football at the University of Notre Dame.
"Win one for the Gipper" has become five of the most popular words in Notre Dame football. Those words were spoken by George Gipp one of the most outstanding running backs in Irish history. Gipp died at age twenty-five, on December 14, 1920 of strep throat , while on his deathbed he spoke to Coach Rockne these emotional words "I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I"m not afraid. Sometime, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys -- tell them to go in there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I"ll be then , Rock. But I"ll know about it, and I"ll be happy." Eight years later, Rockne spoke the words of George Gipp to an underdog Notre Dame club facing a powerful Army unit. On that day an Inspired Notre Dame team upset the Army Cadets, 12-6. .
The 1924 team was known as the four horsemen and seven mules, the four horsemen became known as the most famous backfield in college football history. The backfield consist of quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller, and fullback Elmer Layden. A Ney York sportswriter named Grantland Rice added Luster to the legend of the four horsemen with his famous sports story "Outlined against a blue, gray October sky The Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.".
To add to Notre Dame's Tradition, eight times a member of the Irish Football program has won the prestigious Heisman Trophy award. Also Notre Dame boast of players such as : Paul Horning, Joe Theismann, Bob Crable, Tim Brown and the great Joe Montana.
